Methods Of Meditation On Scripture (part 1)

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Methods Of Meditation On Scipture (part 2)

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So right now we're going to look at some of the passages of scripture which
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Teach meditation and the first is Joshua 1 8
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Moses has died God is commissioning Joshua To be the new leader of his people and as he does so he tells him about these
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Scrolls that Moses left maybe one big scroll with five books in it or five big scrolls
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I don't know, but he says to him this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth
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But you shall meditate on it once a day Huh Day and night when
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I wait a minute This is Joshua This man is the civic
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The military the judicial leader of some Two million people how in the world is he going to have time to meditate day and night?
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Do you think God meant for him to walk around all day and night with a one of these big scrolls in front of him?
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No So this is just sort of a euphemistic sort of a he didn't literally mean for Joshua to be able to meditate day and night
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No Well, how could he meditate day and night then
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Well, the only possible way he could have done that was once during the day. He absorbed something
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From one of those scrolls in such a way as he could recall it anytime during the day or the night
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So if he's walking to a meeting with his cabinet He could think about it as he's on the battlefield and surveying the battlefield as the military leader of the people he could recall something from the scroll
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While he is adjudicating a case and listening he could say now that Kind of reminds me of what
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I read this morning. What was that? It's the only way he could have meditated day and night but notice he was to do it
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So that he might be careful to do According to all that is written in it for then
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Wednesday then when After you do it see that again you meditate so that you will do it for then
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After you've done it, then you will make your way prosperous. Then you will have success
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Now there's a lot we could take the time to say about this idea of prosperity and success and scripture generally you had it perceived as more material and tangible
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The farther back you go in the Old Testament and the farther you go in the New Testament. It's more spiritual and eternal
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Very far back Perhaps a man who was a contemporary of Abraham when perhaps
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I'm saved in the first book of the Bible actually written down book of Job Job is the wealthiest man in the world
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And he's a very faithful godly man, but then it's all taken away from him and all his friends tell him it's because of what?
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You've said and he says no no, no, no, that's not it. Come on Job. They're just impatient with him Finally, it's like you're arguing.
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It's like arguing against gravity Job Everybody knows if you're faithful God blesses you and if you're unfaithful, he takes it away.
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You were a faithful man That's why you had so much material prosperity and God took it all away. Therefore you must have sinned and he kept saying no
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There's not so and they just got put out with it. Finally God had to intervene and say that wasn't the case So even at that stage, he's beginning to correct this idea but nevertheless the idea was
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Prosperity successes is earthly and tangible the farther back you go in the Old Testament in the New Testament the greatest
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Prosperity is that we're moth and rust Cannot corrupt the riches right spiritual and eternal prosperity and I would argue the greatest success is
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Christ's likeness Can you be any more successful than being like Jesus? But just in summary for the sake of time and so forth in summary, let's call this
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God's blessing Whatever it is, whatever it means and whenever we get it this world or the next whatever it means we want it, right?
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Let's just summarize that as God's Blessing and notice the connection you in fact,
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I'll put it up here then come back Whatever it means whenever we get it We want it right that prosperity success spoken of at the end of chapter 1 verse 8.
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We want it God's blessing what Precedes God's blessing here in this passage
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Doing it obedience and that's because obedience is basically another way of saying
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Christ's likeness Doing what God says to do obeying the Word of God is becoming like Jesus and That's what we were created for Romans 8 29 for those who before knew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son and in all eternity future
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Predestination ultimately is toward glorification and glorification is being like Christ right forever and ever
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We know that when we see him we should be as he is first John 3 2 & 3 says we shall see him as he is so in eternity past Predestined all those in Christ to be made to like Christ Romans 8 29 eternity future glorified to be like Christ So in time in your life, the more you're obeying the more you're becoming like Christ God says
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You get it You understand why I made you I made you to be like Jesus Jesus Romans 8 says is going to be the firstborn among Many brethren many like him
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Now not like him in his divinity As the Mormons believe we're gonna be like him and his sinless glorified perfect humanity
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We're gonna be like Jesus So in this life, the more we're becoming like Jesus God says I will bless that because you get it
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You are fulfilling the eternal plan So that's why obedience
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Precedes God's blessing. Now. We know our obedience doesn't earn God's blessing We know that often
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God blesses us when we're disobedient, but nevertheless We know the general principle in Scripture is we can't expect
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God's blessing without obedience, right? That's not news to anybody in this room.
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Everybody here this morning Knows this the question we don't ask is what precedes the obedience?
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What makes us more obedient tomorrow than today Why is it that people can read the
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Bible every day of their lives and they have no perception of it ever having much?
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Impact in other words, they say I read my Bible every day and I can't tell you the last time it changed my day
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Much less my life. I can't tell you the last time my daily Bible reading made me more obedient and it's because we have simply
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Neglected This it's meditation that precedes obedience
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Which leads to God's blessing So let's go back and see this chart again as is illustrated in Joshua 1 8
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You want God's blessing sure what precedes it? Obedience for then after you've obeyed it then you'll receive
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God's blessing But what precedes the obedience you meditate so that you may do it That's what we're not doing.
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That's why we read it and it doesn't change our day. It doesn't change our life We're merely reading and the mere reading of the
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Word of God was never the primary means of transforming us It's reading with meditation and quite simply we aren't
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Meditating we may read prodigious amounts of Scripture and close it and not
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Meditate simple now, that's not always easy to do It's not always easy to obey the Word of God for sure, but that process we saw
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Meditation obedience God's blessing. That's not hard to figure out simple But I found it fascinating to say
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How does this process begin with meditation and end here? Why is it that meditation is so key in this?
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How does this how does this work? And then one day
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I saw in Psalm 39 3
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For David says while I Was Musing what does muse mean to think to meditate while I was musing the fire
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Burned while I was musing meditating thinking the fire
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Burned now in this case, we know the fire was a fire in his belly
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It was a An issue that was troubling him.
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We don't know if it's an enemy within his government outside the government But someone was opposing David and the more he thought about it the angrier
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He got the fire within him burned all the more. Oh, we've all been there, right? Well, we think about something angrier we get
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We replay a conversation in our heads and we get angry all over again
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We we have this conversation mentally as as we wish we would have had it and the fire within us burns and That's when
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I saw Remember last night. We looked at Jeremiah where God said to Jeremiah is not my word like a hammer and a fire
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God's Word is a fire meditation is
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The bellows on the fire of God's Word So that let me put it here
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God's Word is a fire Jeremiah said Meditation is the bellows on the fire of God's Word So as we meditate on the fire of the
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Word of God The Word of God blazes up in our experience at that moment and as a fire
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Blazes up as it increases in its burning at least two things emanate from it increasingly.
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What are they you get more? Heat and more light
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Well, there it is When we meditate on the fire of God's Word we get more light
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We get more understanding We say aha Now I see it now.
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I understand what that verse means after all these years or we see how it applies We see insights into it.
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We never saw before we get more light But when you sin, is it usually because you don't have enough light
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Or not enough heat Is it because you don't know what to do? Or you don't feel like doing
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What you know, you ought to do a problem. Most of the time is not enough light. Is it it's enough heat
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We don't feel like obeying But where does the heat? Where does the feeling where does the passion?
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the desire to obey come from while we muse
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The fire burns when we muse or meditate on the fire of God's Word the fire
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Blazes up in our experience at that moment. It's not just information that passes through our minds, but rather suddenly
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It blazes up in our experience and there's more light And more heat the fire of God's Word warms our hearts and we begin to feel like doing
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What it says to do We want to obey And we're moved to obey.
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We have the passion to actually carry out what we know to do Where does that come from?
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Is it just the reading of God's Word that changes us into obedience? Usually not It's reading that conveys a passion a desire to obey
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It moves us to action that comes through meditation Let me illustrate it this way suppose that this podium here was a fire
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And I've been outside on a cold day And I come in and say whoa, whoa, I'm cold man.
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I'm cold. But oh good. There's a fire good There's a fire cuz I'm so cold. Ah, that fire feels good because I'm cold Because I'm cold
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Because I'm still cold. I don't understand. I am still cold.
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Why am I still cold when I went right by the fire? You got to sit there for a while.
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You got to stay by fire, right? You have to linger by fire to get warm It warms your skin
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And it warms your muscles And it warms your bones Now you're good and warm But you have to linger by the fire
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Before it warms you, right? You can't just sashay by the fire and then say
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I wonder why I'm still cold. I guess it's just me I guess I'm just a second -class warmer upper
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It's not you is it it's your It's your method Most of us just walk by the fire of God's Word rather than lingering by a part of it so that you go to the fire of the
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Word of God and you walk two seconds past verse 1 and 2 seconds past verse 2 and 2 seconds past verse 3 and you close it and you think
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Why doesn't the Bible ever change my life? Why doesn't it warm my heart my heart is just as cold having finished reading the
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Word of God as it was before I started I guess it's just me. No, you walk by the fire for two seconds.
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It's your method. You know what you feel deeply about It's what you think deeply about They don't think deeply about something when you think about it for two seconds.
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I Could say to you though he was rich yet for your sakes He became poor that we through his poverty might become rich rich with God and you can say amen
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And we go on and it has no impact on you whatsoever But if you were to think on that truth and nothing else for five minutes if it doesn't warm your heart, you're not a
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Christian The problem is we don't think about any truth like that for more than two seconds hardly
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Haven't you ever had the experience on a Sunday morning you read you do your daily Bible reading you close your Bible You don't remember thing you've read it's not changed anything
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You go to church lo and behold the pastor preaches on the same passage and it sets your heart on fire
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What's the difference? That morning you spent two seconds going over every verse at church
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He held your attention by the fire of those truths a lot longer and you walked out and your heart was on fire
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Is it because it's you know, it's your method in one case You just pass by the fire and the other case you linger by the fire you linger by the fire of God's Word It warms your heart.
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You begin to feel like doing it It changes you you look at something for two seconds.
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It's not likely to change you Many of you can remember the time when you were changed
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You felt strongly about the issue of abortion You'd heard about it a
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Lot, but there was a sermon Or a TV program or a movie or an article you read you thought about abortion for an extended period of time and You begin to feel deeply about it, that's the way it is with all truth from God's Word Most of the time on your daily
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Existence You encounter something for two seconds. It just it doesn't stick with you.
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You don't remember it and it doesn't impact you And that's the way we do most of our encounters with the
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Word of God and though you may read a hundred verses
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Two seconds on each one is not likely to affect you, but you read a hundred verses you come back and you pick one and You dwell on that and meditate on that your heart will be warmed and you'll be moved to do something
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It'll have an impact on you because instead of two seconds Maybe you spent two minutes, which is a hundred and twenty times
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As long as you thought about it before it's simple We're just not doing well
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Let's change the analogy now from fire to water. There's that analogy that chart again
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We want God's blessing right whatever it is whenever we get it. We know obedience precedes it What precedes the obedience
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The one thing we're not doing meditation. All right, let's change the analogy now from fire to waters. We go to Psalm 1 how blessed is
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The man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the
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Lord and in his law. He meditates once a day Huh?
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Day and night. Wait a minute. It doesn't say so but we pretty sure this is
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King David Who once again is the civic the military the judicial leader of some two million people how in the world
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Does that man with more responsibilities than any ten of us put together? How in the world could he meditate day and night?
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He's the The governor two million people. He is not the armchair general. He's the battlefield leader for this army
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He is the Supreme Court all by himself how In light of everything else that God has given him to do how can he meditate day and night?
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Do you really think God meant for him to walk around with a scroll day and night? No, because like you
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God had given David many other things to do besides meditate on scripture day and night
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He has given you the responsibility to make a living and provide for your family He's given you the responsibility to serve in your local church
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He's given you the responsibility to be a steward of the things he's entrusted to you and and on and on the list could go
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And in addition to that he wants you to meditate day and night now How can anyone who is as busy as we are with God -given responsibilities?
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How can we meditate day and night in the midst of all that? Not by walking around with a scroll in front of us day and night
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Because that would keep us from doing the other things God has told us to do The only way you can meditate day and night is once During the day you absorb from the
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Word of God in such a way that in everything else you're doing day and night You can recall it and it can have an impact and such a person that says will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water
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Which yields its fruit and its season your life is fruitful your life will count for the sake of the kingdom
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You will produce spiritual fruit. Your life will be changed. You'll be more like Christ You'll have the fruit of the
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Spirit You'll have the fruit of the Spirit of God the evidence of the Spirit of God in you and its leaf does not
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Wither you don't dry out Spiritually, you don't burn out spiritually though.
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You may work in a place where there's no spiritual fellowship during the week No encouragement spiritually and though you're in a spiritual desert during the day nevertheless
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Because you are being replenished by the water the Word of God you don't burn up or burn out spiritually or dry out and in whatever he does
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He prospers Sound familiar and notice the connection he prospers why because he meditates
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This kind of language is used very seldom in Scripture, but almost every time you see it It's in the context he prospers because he meditates
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Once again, there's that sequence you want God's blessing. Sure. We all do What precedes it?
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Meditation we know our meditate our our obedience doesn't earn God's blessing We know he blesses us often even in our disobedience, but we know that we can't expect
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God's blessing without obedience But what precedes the obedience what makes us more obedient tomorrow than today just more
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Bible reading That's a starting place obedience
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Is prompted by meditation because meditation is not just the exposure to Scripture It's the absorption of Scripture Reading is the exposure and that's the starting place.
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You have to start there That's not the ending place as it is for most people reading is the exposure to Scripture meditation is the absorption
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Of Scripture and it is the absorption of Scripture that leads to the transformation life so the analogy here is
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The water of the Word of God and absorbing it what happens when you get a hard rain on hard ground
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Just runs off does very little good, right? I would contend that you and I a hard ground upon which a deluge of the water of the word falls
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Anybody who'd come out a Friday night Saturday morning You're the kind of person that probably goes to church more than once a week
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And you hear in Sunday school you hear the word taught you hear the word preached you perhaps go to a Sunday night class
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Or service or another weeknight meeting maybe another Bible study during the week. You're the kind of person who would read
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Christian books Listen to Christian radio listen to Christian CDs and mp3s so you're getting this deluge of The water of the
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Word of God all throughout every day and Yet how much of it changes you how much of it is?
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Absorbed just so much truth
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Coming upon us, but in addition to that think of all the other information
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That we process that comes upon us then
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Barnes & Noble bookstore yesterday since I was in that Barnes &
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Noble bookstore yesterday 400 new books have been published in this country if I go between another
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Barnes & Noble on Monday Between now and then 800 new books Will be published some of which are
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Worth reading. I sometimes go into Barnes & Noble a little bit. I will tear up. I will see book after book I know it changed my life, and I don't have time to read it
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At seminary where I teach our bookstore manager every week sends out an email to us
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With a little PowerPoint slideshow of the new books They've gotten into the bookstore since then and a description about them and blurbs
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Different people and I look at those things and you know page after page. I think oh, that's a great book
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I'd love to read that book and I can't Sometimes I want to go in just throttle a guy and say will you quit sending me these things?
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I can't read these books You're torturing me I have
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Piles of books on chairs under chairs behind the door in my little office at the seminary
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I'm not trying to read these books I'm trying to get them into my library. I mean,
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I bought most of them knowing I wouldn't read them now that I may never read Some of them are for reference.
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Some are very important. I know that you know, they won't be around forever and So, I know they're a crucial book on a particular topic that I'm not studying right now, but I know that someday
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I will and a Lot of books on worship that come out.
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For example, I teach a course on worship I don't have time to read them now, but I need to know about them later so I'm just trying to get them into my library because I will photocopy the table of contents maybe many times and put the file that Put it in my file on worship put it in the file on on Maybe singing or on music something else to remind me what
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I'm dealing with I know where all my books on worship are but if I'm dealing with books on music Some of those are in another part of my library
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I'm going to put the book in one place either in music or worship, but it deals maybe with both subjects
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And so if I'm over here and all my books on worship I forget that I've got a book over here in music that also has some stuff on worship.
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That'd really be helpful So I try to process books into my library to help me know that what good does it have the book if I don't even know?
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You know that has what it has in there can help me So I have I have piles of books on my desk under chairs on chairs in bags by the chairs
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Books, I'm just trying to get into my library. I didn't talk about reading And I go home and I have my roll -top desk where I do most of my writing a computer desk
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And I've got piles of books on those and besides some I have to step over to get to the desks And then in the family room by my reading chair.
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I have something I wanted for many years It's a double -decker Lazy Susan bookcase Hold 16 feet of books right there of course.
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It's flat on the top, and I can pile books on the top Levenger, but that's too many so the books my hot kind of books are on a little little
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Stand to the right okay, we have a Bible things for family worship and all those kinds of things and then in Bedroom bedside table on and by on the floor that those are books.
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I'm trying to read right now I'm gonna read these books someday I read two newspapers on Mondays and Wednesdays three the local paper while I'm watching the news at night
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And I'm just flying through these papers just stuff that I'm gonna cut out put in my files my seven file cabinets things that I'll put in my books are
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You know Illustrations or so forth that I'm gonna put in things that I write, so I'm just flying through it
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Just you know cutting things out look, and I'm not even where I'm listening to the news, and then I go up What's the score who who won?
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Or what's the weather tomorrow? I wasn't even aware. I was listening But I was reading reading reading and all the time and getting more information more information off the television
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I Remember when I was living in Kansas City suddenly I realized that Brian Busby the weatherman was giving us a weather forecast for Afghanistan.
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I put the paper down He give me the weather for Afghanistan. I thought why do I need to know that? General Tommy Franks needed to know the weather forecast for Afghanistan But I didn't need to know that and it dawned upon me that I bet my grandparents who married
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March of 1919 and began dirt farming in Northeast, Mississippi Probably didn't even know that there is an
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Afghanistan, and I know the weather That's more information than I need
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I'm told that now the average American gets 90 -something television stations
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So for the people like me they get 26. There's somebody else that gets what 160 so the average
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American now gets 90 something Television stations as we all know most of which is no good
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But when I was in the hospital after my cancer surgery, I realized that you know You have that many channels 24 -7 there's something on that's interesting
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That's useful. It's edifying. It's not trash. It's not garbage. I mean by the time it's in, Kentucky We have three public television stations.
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You've got the history channel the discovery channel learning channel home and garden channel outdoor living channel
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C -span 2 on Saturday Sunday is book TV You know 48 hours of nonfiction books a lot of great stuff that you start adding it up You've got a lot of stations that you consider them at one time or another
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They've all got some good stuff on So I you know in the hospital the worst place in the world try to sleep or rest and you're drugged up and so often
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You know two or three in the morning. I was just wide awake, and there was plenty things to watch that they weren't junk They weren't trash.
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They were actually edifying they were informative You know you could learn something of benefit.
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You know and plus occasionally on some of the Christian station believe it or not there were some Good things on there, which is contributing fact at night in 1850
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I'm told the average American slept nine hours a night plus now. It's more like seven in One reason because you know you would that many
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TV channels. There's always something interesting on you think man You know I'm kind of sleepy, but that really looks good
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I remember I had just finished listening for the second time to the Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John Adams by David McCullough wonderful stuff and PBS when
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I was going to have a special on the famous correspondence between John and Abigail Adams perhaps the most famous Lengthy correspondence in American history both of them knew they were writing history
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They were incredible letter writers, and they both saved all their letters, so it was just wonderful, and I watched that It was everything.
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I hoped it would be fascinating. They said tomorrow night. We're gonna rerun this like at midnight or something. Oh good So the next night.
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I'm trying to watch this thing at midnight or one in the morning something I'm just I'm so sleepy. I'm getting out of my mind and part of me was saying go to sleep fool
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You've had cancer. You've had surgery. You know sleep, but part of me is oh, but it's so interesting. You know I can learn something here
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So there's always Information come in through the pipeline while you're sitting here your email inbox
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It's piling up So is mine if I don't have the capacity to deal with email while I'm traveling. I'll get back on Monday.
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I'll have 300 email and I'll spend all day Monday with this time -saving device
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Call email having to process all this information.
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That's good. I mean you know Did most of it I did all
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I don't think I had him one phone call about this conference All by email do it middle of night You know don't have to play phone tag anytime you want day or night send mail
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Dan and I set most of this up you know by by email that way and We tend to think oh great email
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It means I can send a message whenever I want to whoever I want to send one to but what we fail to realize the outset was this also means that everyone in the world can send us an email and Some days it seems like they do and then we have these mobile phones
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Which means we can get information anywhere Anytime now that's progress in a sense.
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That's good if I am Traveling like this my wife back in Kentucky needs to get to get information to me
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It's great that she can call me 24 7 of where no matter where I am That's a good thing, but the downside is that means you can get calls
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Emails all these other things 24 7 no matter where you are and there's more information
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More and more information to be processed when I wrote spiritual disciplines for the Christian life I said that the the total body of knowledge in the world all the facts in the world
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They double every two or three months Now it's every two or three days You take all the data in the world that data doubles every two or three days
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What Richard a Swenson in his book margin? calls progress That's what's killing
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Which he defines progress is getting more and more of everything faster and faster
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There's a point in which it's good if you're dying of thirst you come across a garden hose It's just trickling water.
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You have to hold it up to get water to come down more is good There comes a point in which it's too much if it's coming out like a fire hose.
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It's bad It's too much. Have you ever been to the toothpaste wing at Walmart when
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I was a kid? It was crest or Colgate. That was it, you know You want the aqua or you want the white then it got complicated.
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I had a gel, you know Well now you've got you know, the tartar control you've got the sensitive teeth
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You've got the you know whitening you got and each menu but the Walmart brand is a little cheaper Does it do the same thing as this and you're ten minutes your life trying to figure out?
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But you finally go. Okay, this is it. I'm evaluating everything. It's out there. This is what I want This is what I'm always going to get and it just drives me nuts.
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I'll go in there good and they will move it You have that happen to you if I where is it
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I spend ten minutes looking for the one that I'm committed to getting for the rest of my life because I don't want to go Through the ten -minute process of design and I can't find it and everything is that way, right?
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So it's just more and more information Swenson this author of margin and the sequel the overload syndrome
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Said that as a medical doctor if he read two medical journal articles
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Every day, I'd be quite a commitment. This isn't, you know, brief devotional our daily crumb our daily bread
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Kind of thinking, you know, this is heavily detailed researched
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Technical medical journal writing it might take him an hour to read and process one of those
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So if he were to do that every morning and take an hour if he were to take an hour or late every afternoon To read to every day what a commitment.
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He said at the end of one year I'd be five years behind In my reading that's not reading just everything that's just in his narrow field of specialty
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Because so much information is being generated like that You may feel the same way
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Now, do you want your doctor to be up on that stuff? Let me tell you what can happen if he does after I had my
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Surgery I was home for a couple of weeks. I had an infection from the hospital which turned to be worse I went back in for or another eight days when
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I finally got out and I started traveling again in February of 2006 First place I went to is a church in Georgia.
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I'd known this pastor for many years But I hadn't seen him in several years basically said well, what's what's new with you?
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And he said well, I've got type 1 diabetes Really? He said yes so bad. I've got a pump under my clothes here.
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I have to you know, do that all the time Really? He said yeah, and it was caused by antibiotics
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Said what? Never heard of that. He said yep. They gave me an antibiotic for I'll have some simple thing and it gave me type 1 diabetes
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So I get home on Sunday Sunday night for that and I think it was like Tuesday in Newsweek magazine they have an article on that very thing and That there it was killing some people especially with among elderly people.
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They were it was killing people as giving people type 1 diabetes Wednesday USA Today has an article on the same thing
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My doctor has been giving me the same antibiotic. I'm taking this stuff like tic -tacs Thursday I have a follow -up appointment with him.
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I go in I've got Newsweek. I've got USA Today I said have you seen this look I said I never heard of this
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He is the top cancer specialist in Louisville And he hasn't heard of this.
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I go right from his office literally right next door to the hospital Because some people in our church were there they were on the very same floor very same wing where I'd been
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So my nurses are in there and I'm talking with some of them I said, did you know about this one nurse said?
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Oh, yeah, we took it out of the hospital last week We're not even use that in the hospital anymore and the top surgeon in Louisville didn't know that now folks
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When the top cancer surgeon in Louisville finds out about problems with antibiotics from me
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We've got problems So do you want your doctor to read up on this stuff and be aware?
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So he doesn't give you antibiotics that will kill you to do that He has to read all these medical journal articles all of the time
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Which means if he does that guess what he can't do he can't see you So you have a choice
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You can have your doctor see you and not know about stuff and give you stuff that kills you are
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Read up on it, so it won't give you stuff that kills you but not have time to see you it's your choice because of all the information that's out there and I bet some of you feel the same way to make any kind of decision at Your job that you feel like you have to go through this mountain of information
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Otherwise, you may make the wrong decision and you know, you'll never be able to go through all that information and you don't have time
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Everybody feels that way Because of this information overload, so think about all this now
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You have all this amount of information to process millions of pages are being added to the internet while we're sitting here and Many of those are worthwhile and helpful and beneficial
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You've got 400 new books being published every day. Many of them are worthwhile 92 television channels some of those have something on 24 7 which would be beneficial useful informative
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Christian radio Christian books Christian CDs and music you come to church several times a week
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You read the Bible every single day. You get hundreds of emails all these sorts of things and then
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In the midst of all that you open up the Bible you read a chapter you close it and you think that's going to change your life it's just like George Muller said it's like it becomes like water passing through a pipe and The water pressure in that pipeline is increasing every day 400 new books 90 television channels on and on we go more emails
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All this information overload and then you take one chapter three chapters you spend five minutes reading that that's going to change your life
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No, you take the chapter no matter how much you focus on it. It's like That gallon of water so to speak of the
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Word of God is there in your mind but as soon as you close your Bible, it's gone and The next thing in the pipeline is there the next thing on your to -do list
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Folks if there's one thing and all the world we need to absorb it's this
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But I did all that to show you how difficult it is to absorb The water of the
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Word of God that we have to be more intentional about it than any generation in history because of progress
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Now we are grateful That we can hear the best Bible preaching and teaching in the world 24 -7 on the
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Internet What a blessing for people who don't have access to good Bible preaching and teaching
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What a blessing it is to almost anything you want to study you go to the Internet There's there's more information there on that that you can possibly find from trusted sources
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What a blessing we can go the Internet or Christian bookstores and get Christian books Just immediately
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What a blessing But that also makes it more difficult to absorb
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When we're inundated with information it makes it harder to absorb that's why I say we're like hard It's like hard rain on hard ground so much information so much truth comes upon us
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But what really matters is not how much we're exposed to but how much we absorb
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Reading is the exposure to Scripture Meditation is the absorption
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It's only that we absorb that will change our lives That's why it's so essential
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And you have to be intentional because if you're not intentional if it's not a discipline to meditate on Scripture we will
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Deceive ourselves by saying I read a chapter. I read three chapters That's good enough And you won't remember it as soon as you close it
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So what good does that do? I think it does some good and if I had time I could explain why I think that does
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Do some good But we don't sense that as we've all admitted when was the last time your daily reading of the
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Word of God changed your day Much less changed your life.
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Well, let's see this in the New Testament now But one who looks intently you don't just look at it
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You look intently that's meditation But one who looks intently at the perfect law the law of Liberty and abides by it not having become
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What we have become not having become what we have become
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That is a forgetful hearer or in our case or forgetful what Forgetful reader we read it close it we forget it.
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That's what we've become Not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer this man which man
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The doer this man the doer will be blessed in what he does sound familiar and in whatever he does he
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Prospers, he's blessed. There it is again Notice the sequence we want
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God's blessing right whatever it means whenever we get it we want it How do we get it?
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Only if we're a doer What makes us a doer what makes us more of a doer tomorrow than we are today looking intently not just looking
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Because just looking makes you a forgetful looker You forget what you look at Unless you look intently unless you meditate, so here it is again.
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We want God's blessing. We want to be blessed in what we do So what has to precede that obedience you have to be a doer
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Duh, we know that tell us something new well what makes us a doer
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Simple that's not hard to understand is it that's not always easy to do
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It's certainly not always easy to obey, but that sequence is not hard to figure out you want God's blessing in your life Here it is
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Here's the secret you want God's blessing meditation
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Because it's meditation that makes us more like Christ Otherwise, we're just exposed to the information that makes us more like Christ, but we don't absorb
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We're not transformed by the information that makes us more like Christ that comes from meditation And the very simple fact is most people read and they don't meditate
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Some it's got to be simple if everyone has to do it, and we're simply not meditating
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Question comments at this point yes
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Well, I think that would become clearer in the next session, but memorization is the act of imprinting it in your memory
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You will meditate as you do that, but you can meditate Without intentionally memorizing, so there's a distinction.
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There's a lot of overlap But a person can meditate without intentionally memorizing
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But if you are memorizing almost by almost by default you will also Meditate so on other hand yes
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Uh -huh great great, we'll talk about that Right yeah
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Well short answer is this you you read and after you read you come back and select one verse from your reading and meditate on that See reading
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Is like going across a lake in a motorboat quick, and you get the big picture
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When I when you read through the Bible which I advocate on an annual basis you get the big picture Trees are on this side of the lake rocks are on this side of the lake a lake gets narrower right up here
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There's a beach on the far end of the lake you get the big picture. That's crucial Meditation is going across that same boat the same lake and a glass bottom boat
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You see depth You see detail you don't see in the motorboat
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Both are beneficial both have their place But most people just go across the motorboat and you forget
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Kind of everything but the big picture Because you see it so quickly. I mean you look down you may see the same little rock and you go by it in two seconds
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But you forget it meditation is focusing on that rock You do that just do that you'll miss the glories of the big picture, so we need to do both
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So you read pick a verse come back and meditate on that verse. It's my short answer
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Yes In most cases yes because of time
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In real life because time but again. I think what I'm going to say in the next session. We'll add
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Color to that That's the another hand okay answer anyone else
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Hmm Yes, that's right that meditation generally will
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Maybe even your imperceptibly lead to memorization. That's right. Yes Yes, right, that's what
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I'm saying yes Yeah Yeah, there's one thing to absorb you can't absorb all of it.
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It's too much. There's one thing we must absorb It's the water of the Word of God therefore.
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We must be intentional. We have to be more disciplined than any generation in history We are blessed with more information than anyone in history
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There are a lot of blessings there, but the downside is we can drown in it so that we don't absorb any of it
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My grandparents back to them again my grandfather you get up in the morning If you read his Bible in the morning, then he went out to the fields
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With his lunch in one bucket and water in another bucket. He was out there all day The only sounds he heard all day with the sounds of God's creation are the sounds of his own making
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His singing the sounds of the wind and the trees the birds singing Those the only sounds he heard all day because there's no planes flying overhead.
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There's no tractors. There's no cars And back in the farmhouse before the children came along my grandmother
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They only sound she heard all day or the sounds that she made working around the kitchen or the sounds of God's creation coming in through the open windows
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There's no electrical hum and no TV TV.
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It hadn't come through there yet. You know that so they had no electricity in their home No radio.
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No TV. No telephone. I mean it was quiet So if they chose to do so they could read their Bible they they could think on it almost undistracted
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Lee all day if they wanted to Now the downside of that was if they wanted any any
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Entertainment any music any information they had to hitch up a team take a bumpy wagon ride into town which they do on Saturdays To trade and Sunday go to church.
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That's the only music the only information They ever got the president to be shot on Monday. They wouldn't hear about it till Saturday when they went into town
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Whereas today if the president were in Iraq if he got shot within 30 minutes We'd have phones going off all over the place and I could look on my phone and see it on live television
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As well as good email, so it's great progress there in one sense
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But the downside is at so much access and information. I can't do as easily what my grandparents did and so my whole point was we have to be more intentional and Exclude certain wonderful information in order to absorb the best information.
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Well At this point if we stopped right here, I would assume that many people would go out and say man
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Now I see it I haven't been meditating and it is crucial meditate got a meditate
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So important so you go home get your Bible. Okay. I just been reading. I gotta meditate now.
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I'll just read I've got to meditate. So you get your Bible you do some reading. Okay? All right, get ready
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Meditate meditate Wonder when last time they dusted the blades on that fan up there.
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Yeah Okay It's this yellow stripe on the carpet for oh,
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I guess they do a wanna in here What am I doing? I'm supposed to meditate me meditate, but man,
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I don't have time for this. I got to go to work That's not meditation
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That's daydreaming Okay, there's a place for that one of my books simplify your spiritual life.
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The chapter is just two pages long It's then on the website. You can download 30 of those. There's 90 of those chapters
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Just two pages long and download them for free. One of them is called do nothing and do it to the glory of God There's a time of place just kick a can down a road
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God doesn't require us always to be Producing in the way that we feel pressured to do so and we think you know, there's a place for daydreaming.
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That's not meditating So unless we did this last session how